The HELI-DEM model estimation

Abstract. Global DEMs are fundamental for global applications and are necessary also at the local scale, in regions where local models are not available. Local DEMs are preferred when they are available and if are characterized by better accuracies and resolutions.

In general, two problems arise. Firstly, an interest region could be patched by several partly overlapping DEMs that present similar accuracies and spatial resolutions: they should be merged in a unified model. Moreover, even when the interest region is covered by one unified DEM, local DEMs with better accuracy could be available and should be used to locally improve it.

All these problems have been addressed within HELI-DEM project. HELI-DEM (HELvetia-Italy Digital Elevation Model) is a project that has been funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the Italy-Switzerland cooperation program. It started in 2010 and finished at the end of 2013. The involved institutions in the project were Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, Regione Lombardia, Regione Piemonte and Scuola Universitaria della Svizzera Italiana. One specific aim of the project was the creation and the publication of a unified Digital Elevation Model for the part of the Alps between Italy and Switzerland.

The interest area is prevalently mountainous, with heights that range from about 200 m to 4600 m. Three low Resolution DTMs (20–25–50 m of resolution) are available that partly overlap and patch the whole project area: they are characterized by accuracies of some meters. Also High Resolution DTMs (1–5 m) are available: they have accuracies of some decimeters but cover limited areas of the project. The various models are available in different reference frames (the European ETRF89 and the Italian Roma40) and are gridded either in cartographic or geographic coordinates. Before merging them, a validation of the input data has been performed in three steps: cross validation of LR DTMs, validation of LR DTMs by HR DTMs and final check by geodetic techniques. The comparisons confirm the accuracy of HR data and the presence of few local anomalies in LR DTMs.

Considering the goal of the project and the previous results, two different DTMs have been produced. Both of them cover the whole project area (boundaries: λ = 7.80° East and λ = 10.70° East, φ = 45.10° North e φ = 46.70° North). They are gridded in ETRF2000 geographical coordinates and their spatial resolution is 2 × 10⁻⁴ degrees.

The former has been obtained by interpolating and merging all the input LR DTMs on a new common grid. This DTM has been called HD-1. HD-1 presents the same local anomalies of the LR DTMs used as input for the interpolation: therefore, at least in areas where better data (HR DTMs) are available, its correction was needed. In order to avoid sharp discontinuities, corrections obtained by HR DTMs have been filtered by a numerical FFT approach before applying them. The result of this correction has been called HD-2. HD-1 and HD-2 have already been published by an open access geoservice.